1619 Project

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Discussion

A critique from the left

Tom Mackaman:

"The New York Times 1619 Project ... seeks to impose a new narrative of American history in which all is to be explained by white racism. In its own words, the Project, “aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 [the year the first slaves were brought to colonial Virginia] as our true founding.” The lavishly funded campaign includes a glossy magazine that is being distributed by the hundreds of thousands, free of charge, to museums, libraries and schools, including, so far, every high school in Buffalo, Washington DC, Winston-Salem and Chicago, where the public school workers went out on strike last week.

...

There is also agreement between Trump and his ruling class opponents that the working class should be divided. For the Democratic Party, this entails the promotion of various forms of identity, including gender, sexuality, and, above all, race, as the decisive social category.

This is the political essence of the 1619 Project. Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones sets the tone in the project’s lead essay. She insists that “anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country,” that slavery is its “original sin” and “the root of the endemic racism that we still cannot purge from this nation to this day,” and that “the inhumanity visited on black people by every generation of white America justified the inhumanity of the past.” Against all of this, “black Americans fought back alone.” [Emphases added]

What are the political implications of this approach to history? If we grant as true that “white America” can never overcome its racism, it follows that there exists no possibility for political cooperation and genuine solidarity among working class people and youth in America, let alone the world, to confront the crises that threaten all of humanity. Black workers and youth should subordinate themselves to the African American wealthy and upper-middle class, people like Ms. Hannah-Jones, and organize as an identity group inside the Democratic Party—for which, of course, the New York Times is a primary mouthpiece.

There is nothing progressive about this in the slightest. Indeed, in its insistence that race—which has no basis in science—is the determinative category of both the present and past, the 1619 Project shares the most basic premise of the white supremacists and fascists that are being set into motion by the Trump administration.

This is dangerous politics, and very bad history. Hannah-Jones mixes anti-historical metaphors pertaining to biological determinism (that racism is printed in a “national DNA”) and to religious obscurantism (that slavery is the uniquely American “original sin”). But whether ordained by God or genetic code, racism by whites against blacks serves, for the 1619 Project, as history’s deus ex machina. There is no need to consider questions long placed at the center of historical inquiry: cause and effect, contingency and conflict, human agency and change over time. History is simply a morality tale written backwards from 2019.

...

There is also agreement between Trump and his ruling class opponents that the working class should be divided. For the Democratic Party, this entails the promotion of various forms of identity, including gender, sexuality, and, above all, race, as the decisive social category.

This is the political essence of the 1619 Project. Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones sets the tone in the project’s lead essay. She insists that “anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country,” that slavery is its “original sin” and “the root of the endemic racism that we still cannot purge from this nation to this day,” and that “the inhumanity visited on black people by every generation of white America justified the inhumanity of the past.” Against all of this, “black Americans fought back alone.” [Emphases added]

What are the political implications of this approach to history? If we grant as true that “white America” can never overcome its racism, it follows that there exists no possibility for political cooperation and genuine solidarity among working class people and youth in America, let alone the world, to confront the crises that threaten all of humanity. Black workers and youth should subordinate themselves to the African American wealthy and upper-middle class, people like Ms. Hannah-Jones, and organize as an identity group inside the Democratic Party—for which, of course, the New York Times is a primary mouthpiece.

There is nothing progressive about this in the slightest. Indeed, in its insistence that race—which has no basis in science—is the determinative category of both the present and past, the 1619 Project shares the most basic premise of the white supremacists and fascists that are being set into motion by the Trump administration.

This is dangerous politics, and very bad history. Hannah-Jones mixes anti-historical metaphors pertaining to biological determinism (that racism is printed in a “national DNA”) and to religious obscurantism (that slavery is the uniquely American “original sin”). But whether ordained by God or genetic code, racism by whites against blacks serves, for the 1619 Project, as history’s deus ex machina. There is no need to consider questions long placed at the center of historical inquiry: cause and effect, contingency and conflict, human agency and change over time. History is simply a morality tale written backwards from 2019." (https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/01/amer-n01.html)


More information

Critical Resources

Source: Compendium of Free Black Thought

“‘1776’ is an assembly of independent voices who uphold our country’s authentic founding virtues and values and challenge those who assert America is forever defined by its past failures, such as slavery. We seek to offer alternative perspectives that celebrate the progress America has made on delivering its promise of equality and opportunity and highlight the resilience of its people. Our focus is on solving problems. We do this in the spirit of 1776, the date of America’s true founding.”


  • Butler, John Sibley. (J. Marion West Chair for Constructive Capitalism, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas, Austin.)

(2020). “Straight out of the Black Bourgeoisie: Lessons for the 21st Century.” 1776 Unites. https://1776unites.com/essays/straight-out-of-the-black-bourgeoisie-lessons-for-the-21st-century/

“I continue to recoil in horror at how blacks are presented in the national media, and how the New York Times introduced us to The 1619 Project, which ignores the history of my tradition and presents blacks as going from slavery to poverty, with no role models.”


  • Fanusie, Yaya J. (Adjunct Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security; Adjunct Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracy.)

(2020). “As African American Patriotism Declines, So Will America.” 1776Unites.org https://1776unites.com/essays/as-african-american-patriotism-declines-so-will-america/

“American culture often takes its cue from movements in African American culture. African Americans who believed in America’s founding ideals and called on the nation to live up to them made patriotism more real for everyone. But if we keep the critique of our nation and lose the sense of universal ownership and belonging that our patriotic symbols are meant to instill, there is nothing left to stand for. And that is the beginning of the fall.”


  • Harris, Leslie M. (Professor of History, Northwestern University.)

(2020). “I Helped Fact-Check the 1619 Project. The Times Ignored Me..” https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/06/1619-project-new-york-times-mistake-122248

“[Nikole Hannah-Jones] wanted me to verify some statements for the project. At one point, she sent me this assertion: “One critical reason that the colonists declared their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery in the colonies, which had produced tremendous wealth. At the time there were growing calls to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire, which would have badly damaged the economies of colonies in both North and South.” I vigorously disputed the claim. Although slavery was certainly an issue in the American Revolution, the protection of slavery was not one of the main reasons the 13 Colonies went to war. [...] Despite my advice, the Times published the incorrect statement about the American Revolution anyway, in Hannah-Jones’ introductory essay. In addition, the paper’s characterizations of slavery in early America reflected laws and practices more common in the antebellum era than in Colonial times, and did not accurately illustrate the varied experiences of the first generation of enslaved people that arrived in Virginia in 1619.”


  • Hill, Jason D. (Professor of Philosophy, DePaul University.)

(2020). “The Moral Meaning of America: Two Parallel Narratives.” 1776 Unites. https://1776unites.com/essays/the-moral-meaning-of-america-two-parallel-narratives/

“America has always been a place of regeneration, renewal, and self-examination; a place where peoplehood is not a given or a smug achievement, but, rather, a long and continuous aspiration.”


  • McWhorter, John. (Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University.)

(2020). “The 1619 Project Depicts an America Tainted by Original Sin.” Reason. https://reason.com/2020/01/30/the-1619-project-depicts-an-america-tainted-by-original-sin/

(2020). “We Cannot Allow ‘1619’ to Dumb Down America in the Name of a Crusade.” 1776 Unites. https://1776unites.com/essays/we-cannot-allow-1619-to-dumb-down-america-in-the-name-of-a-crusade/


  • Page, Clarence. (Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Chicago Times.)

(2019). “ ‘A Dream as Old as the American Dream’: Embrace Black Patriotism over Victimization.” 1776Unites. https://1776unites.com/essays/a-dream-as-old-as-the-american-dream-embrace-black-patriotism-over-victimization/


  • Reed, Adolph, Jr. (Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania.)

(2019). “Reinventing the past to suit the purposes of the present.” (Interview by Tom Mackaman). https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/20/reed-d20.html

“I didn’t know about the 1619 Project until it came out, and frankly when I learned about it my reaction was a big sigh. But again, the relation to history has passed to the appropriation of the past in support of what whatever kind of ‘just-so’ stories about the present are desired. This approach has taken root within the Academy. It's like all bets are off.”


  • Reilly, Wilfred. (Associate Professor of Political Science, Kentucky State University)

(2020). “Sorry, New York Times, But America Began in 1776.” https://quillette.com/2020/02/17/sorry-new-york-times-but-america-began-in-1776/ (2020). “Slavery Does Not Define the Black American Experience.” 1776 Unites. https://1776unites.com/essays/wilfred-reilly-2/ (2020). “Why Woke History Is Not the Answer.” RealClear PublicAffairs. https://www.realclearpublicaffairs.com/articles/2020/10/27/why_woke_history_is_not_the_answer_581610.html (2020). “What’s Wrong with the 1619 Project?” PragerU.com (youtube)


  • Rowe, Ian. (Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute.)

(2020). “The 1619 Project perpetuates the soft bigotry of low expectations.” Thomas Fordham Institute, February 18, 2020. https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/1619-project-perpetuates-soft-bigotry-low-expectations

“That is what is so disturbing and dangerous about the 1619 Project’s aspiration for children: to create in the minds of students and teachers of all races a vision of America that is imbued with a permanent malignancy that is hostile to the dreams of students of color.”


  • Williams, Walter E. (John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University.)

(2019). “New York Times’ ‘1619 Project’ Has Key Error About Our Founding,” The Daily Signal. https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/08/28/new-york-times-1619-project-has-key-error-about-our-founding/


  • Woodson, Robert L. (President and founder of the Woodson Center.)

(2019). “‘The 1619 Project’ Hurts Blacks,” Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-1619-project-hurts-blacks-11567033108